


Slight Digression

by Qem



Category: Hikaru no Go
Genre: Gen, Introspection, Mystery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-25
Updated: 2012-01-25
Packaged: 2017-10-30 02:46:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,224
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/326906
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Qem/pseuds/Qem
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Igo is a game of logic and consequently Go players love to analyse and explore mysteries in order to break them down to their basic components. Of course, Igo is also a game of innovation, which is why every Go player has their own theory on Sai. Or at least that’s what Honda said, after what seems like the fifty billionth conversation on the puzzling avatar.</p><p>[This is Nase's thoughts on the matter, that it's more interesting to think about what Sai lead to, rather than who they were.]</p>
            </blockquote>





	Slight Digression

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written for Blind Go Round 10

Igo is a game of logic and consequently Go players love to analyse and explore mysteries in order to break them down to their basic components. Of course, Igo is also a game of innovation, which is why every Go player has their own theory on Sai. Or at least that’s what Honda said, after what seems like the fifty billionth conversation on the puzzling avatar.   
  
Nase doesn’t really care who Sai is; but she finds the impact Sai has had on the world fairly interesting. She can’t possibly imagine Shindou without Touya or Touya without Shindou and a loud argument trailing just behind– but apparently they met because of Sai if the rumour mill is to be believed.   
  
Actually, she finds it difficult to imagine the Igo world without either of those two. They are the darling super stars of the Go world with their dazzling plays, endless arguments and ability to either; become good friends, infuriate into vendettas or sometimes even occasionally both, anyone upon contact. (This ability includes affecting members of the population who are both [legally] blind and [quite] deaf*.)  
  


*Ogata’s mother thinks that Shindou is an adorable young man, with Shindou seizing upon the opportunity of blackmail with the fervent desire of a man, who knows while he can’t do anything to stop the “mystery” of his emails being marked as read before he logs in, but will at least settle for wiping the smirk off his opponents face upon just the right occasion. She however thinks that Touya Akira is a quite rude young man after stumbling across one of Shindou and Touya’s “conversations”, and constantly finds ways to thwart his efforts.  
  


* * *

  
It would be a quieter world without Shindou and his contagious enthusiasm - the “Go Go Pro” club’s bar tab rises after each pro examination. There’s also the increase in younger players and since after he took up a casual mentoring position, insei enrolment and retention rates have risen dramatically. She's envious of this younger generation - who seem so much more social and confident than her own, where she felt she had to choose between taking Go seriously and being able to go on a date.  
  
It would be a less accomplished world without Touya’s stubborn nature refusing to allow mere mortal barriers such as language, time and [lack of] money prevent him from successfully organising international tournaments, completing matches on time** and negotiating prestigious sponsorship deals. People used to say that Go was a dying game, but Touya's hard work and dedication continues to provide opportunities and incentive for people to participate and excel.  
  
But Shindou’s said pretty clearly that he only started playing Igo seriously because of Touya and she once heard [a quite drunk] Touya say somewhat whimsically that he thinks he might of quit the go world if it wasn’t for Shindou.  
  


** That is, despite flight disruptions caused by exploding volcanoes. Waya jokes that not even Touya’s death would prevent him from appearing at his matches.

 

* * *

  
Touya-senior wouldn’t have retired, if it wasn’t for that game; the one that marked Sai as a legend and not merely good player***, having previously admitted to admiring the honourable Honinbo-Kuwabara’s reign, a sign many took as a quiet personal challenge. The impacts of that decision vary from player to player; one side thinking it a shame that such a prominent player has removed himself from the Japanese competitions – the other claiming that his retirement has helped bring in enrichment by encouraging the introduction of new influences into the Go community – which they claimed was becoming stagnant. There is also the odd pragmatic soul who thinks that Touya-senior probably wouldn’t have lived as long as he did if it wasn’t for the dramatic changes in his lifestyle that he implemented post-Sai-game. 

 

***It's also the game that's generally referred to the one that changed Sai from a curiosity to the ultimate mystery.

* * *

There have been influences outside of Japan too. Such as, one of the world-wide impacts is the improvement of AI in general, in particular with decision making as two most prominent programmers in the field of Igo AI claim to have some level of inspiration from the internet phenomena.

And theories on Sai aren’t just limited to Japan with a well circulated amongst the Go circuits, PHD paper on Sai having been written by a Chinese student; and she’s heard from one of her Korean counterparts that there’s a theory that Sai was actually a Korean born in Japan – hidden by bullying and racism.

Still as Isumi says, Sai is probably dead and those that hold his secrets will likely take them to their graves (although Waya jokes that’s all well and good, but people could at least have the decency to reveal the juicy bits once they no longer need to worry about earthly matters).

(Of course, for what it’s worth, Nase totally believes that Sai was the honourable Kuwabara wife, Miya (also known as Nase’s grandmother)****.)

 

 

 

 

 

****Nase’s theories on Sai she keeps to herself but her reasoning to her belief can be expanded upon as thus:  
1) Miya, having grown old with, in her own words “a man that was born a cankerous old coot”, knew perfectly well that she could play (and quite well) and has nothing to prove to anyone else in regards to the quality of her game [but an awful lot to prove in regards to looking after the household, if Miya's stories about Miya’s mother-in-law were even slightly true].  
2) The times that a child could play (as Waya repetitively points out) are also easily times that a retiree could play, and are especially times that an elderly relative learning to use the computer from their grandchild could play.  
3) Despite the couple claiming to have no head for technology, there has been a computer in the senior Kuwabara house for as long as Nase can remember, and it was usually always turned on – with a Go game lurking in the background.  
a) Also, Nase had heard her grandmother speak fondly of an online trolling incident that had Waya tearing out his hair.  
4) Miya, as the person who has the time and patience to teach the children*, grandchildren and (sometime after these events) the great-grandchildren, was an expert at teaching games and demonstrating different styles and strategies, although she claimed a preference the elegance and style of the Edo period, in particular Honibou Shuusuke.  
5) Once when looking at a kifu of a game that Sai played online, she heard her grandfather say “now doesn’t this look familiar”, with a bawdy laugh.  
6) And once, after her grandmother’s funeral she heard her grandfather and Ogata talking about Sai – with her grandfather saying that he had it on good authority that Sai was gone; but not to worry, he was sure he could help keep youngins like Ogata on their toes for at least a little while longer.

So she feels her suspicions are well-founded.

 

* Incidentally, Nase’s grandfather Kuwabara appears to be just as uncomfortable with the idea of himself reproducing as the people who are not related to him are (those that are, nowadays, have had all their lives to become resigned to this fact); and consequently avoids his descendants as much as possible, usually with a[n obnoxious] claim that they haven’t proved themselves to him yet.

**Author's Note:**

> Incidentally, my thoughts on Nase's thoughts of her relationship in this story are that she's torn between hiding it [looks so much like bragging/OMG he's so embarrassing] and revealing it to Ogata to see his reaction.


End file.
